A REMARKABLE DREAM

Colonist, Volume XVI, Issue 1653, 22 July 1873, Page 4

A REMARKABLE DREAM

(From the Sendigo Advertiser, My 7.J

Tm neighborhood of Back Creek was thrown into a grate of great gloom yesterday afternoon when it became known that a young man named George Spencer, aged 21, a brother of the two children whom the gunsmith, Eea, is alleged to have criminally assaulted, had committed suicide by hanging himself i from a tree, near the Grassy Flat Eeservoir. The fa-Is in connection with the suicide and with the discovery of the body are very strange. The deceased vras a shopman in the employ of Mr. James Port, who keeps the Durham Ox Hotel and store, at Back Creek, and up to the time of the proceedings at the City Police Court in the case alluded to, and the revelations consequent thereon, appeared in excellent spirits. The investigation of that case, and the disgrace thereby brought upon the family, appeared to have exercised a very depressing effect upon a mind known to be of a Busceptible and reflective cast, and subsequent to the hearing of the case, and the appearance of his injured sisters before the Bench to give evidence against the man Rea, he seems to have been greatly affected, and to have fallen into a melancholy and desponding condition. He continued, however, at his work, and although the marked change in his spirits was observable enough no one apprehended what followed would en9ue. He left Mr. Port's place at about eight o'clock on Wednesday evening lagt, ostensibly with the intention of returning on the following morning, as usual. He ■went, apparently, straight from the shop to his father's houae, near the ranges beyond Back Creek, •where he resided. Nothing unusual was observable in his demeanour when he reached home or subsequently, and he left next morning at the usual hour, saying that he was going to work. He did not, however, return to Port's. Ab Boon as Mr. Port heard that the deceased was missed, he concluded that something was wrong, but the family of Spencer appear to have yet apprehended nothing serious, and thought he might have gone to Sandhurst to see come friends. Some of the family came into town, therefore, and made enquiries. No trace of him, however, was discovered, and nothing being heard of him by the following morning, search was instituted in every direction about Back Creek without effect, although continued all that day.; On Saturday morning, a well-known character about Sandhurst — Lovett, the chimney-sweep—narrated to several persons a droam which he had had. He dreamed, he said, that he Baw George Spencer hanging from a sapling close by the quartz rocks known as the " Two Sisters," at the back of the Flora Hill. He described the apparel which he (Spencer) wore, and his position, with great exactness, as revealed by the dream. He described the spot minutely. Greatly disturbed he seemed to be about this dream, and he appeared restless, and unable to perform his work in his usual manner. He begged of some one to go to the place with him, " and see if there was any truth in it," aa he waa afraid to go there by himself. Little notice at first was taken of this strange dream, and most of the people to whom Lovett told it made light of the affair. Yesterday, however, Lovett after dinner took a nap, and again the same apparition appeared, he pays, to bis mind. Again he dreamed exactly as he dreamed before, and he entreated some people to proceed with him to the spot. Many were out scouring the bush at this time —some scores of personß indeed —and a few volunteers offered then to go with Lovett to the " Two Sisters," at the Flora Hill. There, sure enough, they found the body of George Spencer hanging by a hay-band from a tree, and exactly in the manner and in the same clothes as described by Lovett. The police were communicated with without delay, and Constable Bradly, of Quarry Hill, was speedily on the spot and cut the body down. Life was extinct. The unfortunate deceased was quite stiff and cold; he appeared to have been dead for a long period, perhaps for some days. He •was removed to his own residence. The deceased was greatly respected by everybody with whom he came into contact, and Mr. Port speaks in the highest terms of him. He was unmarried. On the evidence the jury found a verdict that he committed suicide whilst laboring under temporary insanity.